We do all kinds of online procedures and bureaucratic procedures without having to leave home and that is why it is very useful that we use a digital certificate that makes it easier for us to identify ourselves and that the procedures are much simpler. We install them on a computer or on a mobile phone and serve as identification when carrying out any procedure safely and without being able to impersonate our identity.
There are many types of digital certificates but they all meet certain requirements or with certain advantages and allow us to authenticate the identity of the user electronically, they allow us to digitally sign a message or document in order to guarantee the integrity of the data. Furthermore, electronic certificates encrypt the data so that only the recipient can access the content.
What is
It is a piece of software that we install on our computer and that, as we have said before, allows us to identify ourselves online to carry out all kinds of procedures. If it serves as an identification through the internet, we can use it to access our data from the Treasury, for example, but we can also use it to consult our points in the DGT. According to the Spanish Agency for Data Protection, “an electronic certificate or digital certificate is a digital file issued by a trusted third party that guarantees the link between the entity of a person or entity and its public key, therefore, it allows the identification of its owner unequivocally.
What data do you have? Although there can be many types, the digital certificate identifies us as the DNI does and has a series of data that correspond to the identification of the holder with his name and address, the public key of the holder of the certificate, the date of validity of the same, the serial number and certificate issuer identification.
Types
There are many types of electronic certificates… For example, that of a natural person that identifies, as its own name indicates, natural persons. We can also find legal person representative certificates that are issued for natural persons or representatives of legal persons… And other public administration certificates or entity representative certificates, for example.
Although there can be many types, the most common certificate is the FNMT certificate and the electronic DNI. The electronic DNI is a digital certificate that we can install from the National Police Corps website following the instructions explained online and available for Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS. We need an electronic ID reader and follow the corresponding steps in the software.
How to view certificates
To see if we have certificates on the computer, we can do it from the browser and the steps will vary depending on each browser used but there is always a section that allows us to consult it easily.
- Open the Google Chrome browser
- Tap on the three dots in the upper right corner
- A menu with options will open.
- Go to the Configuration section
- Open the “Privacy and security” menu
- Tap on “Security”
- Once here look for “Manage certificates”
From here we will see all the Chrome certificates with “issued for”, “issued by” and its date.
But beyond Chrome, we can also check them in other browsers and in Mozilla Firefox we also have a section that tells us which ones are installed.
- Open the Mozilla Firefox browser on your computer
- Tap on the three lines in the upper right corner of the screen
- Find and open the “Options” section in the menu
- Go to “Privacy and security” in the menu on the left
- Scroll until you reach the “Security” section
